What Could They Be Thinking?

Our Towns

Hartford

January 16, 2001

The latest escapade engineered by protesting union members at Avery Heights retirement community in Hartford could have had disastrous consequences. Luckily, it didn't.

The protesters, members of New England Health Care Employees Union, Local 1199, are frustrated because Avery Heights' owners have not yet rehired all of the workers who went out on strike in November 1999. The strike has been settled, but the protest continues, and it has made life miserable for neighbors of the retirement community because of litter and additional traffic.

Not content with simply picketing in front of Avery Heights, as they have been doing for over a year, union members ramped up their protest an unacceptable notch last Tuesday. They blocked the entrance with barricades, according to witnesses, preventing motorists from entering the center. The 1199 members had waited until Hartford police left the scene about 2:30 p.m., after their shift ended. For about 40 minutes, until two other officers arrived and removed the barricades, havoc ensued. Observers say the blockade triggered a traffic jam that extended more than a mile along New Britain Avenue.

The gridlock provoked unacceptable behavior on the part of a few motorists who angrily sped around pedestrians and other cars stuck in the backlog. In the midst of the dangerous traffic turmoil, a crossing guard was trying to escort students from Batchelder School across a busy New Britain Avenue intersection. The potential for a tragic accident should be obvious to anyone.

Whatever the merit of its grievance with Avery Heights management, the union must change its tactics so that passersby are not inconvenienced, injured or worse, so that the neighborhood can have some peace and so that Hartford taxpayers don't have to keep footing the bill for police protection at the site. The situation is getting ridiculous. It's too bad that some of the protesters have been out of work for more than a year. But that doesn't mean everybody else should suffer.